Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Half of the human population depends on mountains, while globally about half
of the mountain area is under some sort of human land use (Korner and Ohsawa,
2005). Despite the harsh environmental conditions, human presence in mountain
areas has a long history, going back millennia for some parts of the world such as
the Mediterranean Basin. The wealth of goods and services that mountains provide
come at an extra cost for human communities due to the limitations on the exploita-
tion of these resources compared to other environments. The major environmental
issues that mountains face worldwide include, other than dynamic geophysical pro-
cesses (e.g. North Atlantic Oscillation and volcanic activity), anthropogenic ones
such as pollution, land use change and human-induced climatic change (Beniston,
2000). A recognition of mountains in the policy agenda came in 1992 at the UN
Conference on Environment and Development, which resulted in the establishment
of other initiatives - Mountain Partnership, Mountain Forum: Glochamore (Global
Change in Mountain Regions) - and received the attention of the Intergovernmen-
tal Panel on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Mil-
lennium Ecosystem Assessment (Price, 2007). These are attempts to outline the
scientific challenges (i.e. threats and opportunities) that the mountains face world-
wide for future development (Table 1.1). Globally there are many drivers that affect
Table 1.1
Research goals for mountains according to the Glochamore initiative (Bjornsen
Gurung, 2005)
Topic
Research goal
Climate
To develop consistent and comparable regional climate scenarios for
mountain regions, with a focus on Mountain Biosphere Reserves
Land use change
To monitor land use change in mountain regions using methods that are
consistent and comparable
Cryosphere
To predict the areal extent of glaciers under different climate scenarios
Water systems
To determine and predict water balance and its components, particularly
run-off and water yield of mountain catchments (including wetlands
and glaciers) under different global change scenarios
Ecosystem functions
and services
To predict the amount of carbon and the potential yield of timber and
fuel sequestered in forests under different climate and land use
scenarios
Biodiversity
To assess current biodiversity and to assess biodiversity changes
Hazards
To predict changes of lake systems and incidence of extreme flows in
terms of frequencies and amounts, under different climate and land
use scenarios
Health
To understand the current and future distribution and intensity of
climate-sensitive health determinants, and predict outcomes that
affect human and animal health in mountain regions
Mountain
economies
To assess the value of mountain ecosystem services and how that value
is affected by different forms of management
Society and global
change
To understand the environmental, economic, and demographic processes
linking rural and urban areas in mountain regions, as well as those
leading to urbanization, peri-urbanization and metropolization
